Aftermarket companies routinely push the horsepower (HP) envelope of production level gas and diesel combustion engines through the use of aftermarket add-on products. These products include, but are not limited to, belt drive super chargers, exhaust gas driven turbo chargers, nitrous oxide injection, propane injection, and numerous other performance enhancing mechanisms. Though some such devices are designed to improve fuel economy or powertrain aesthetics, many increase an engine's HP beyond its own design limits and the capability of downstream driveline components. Breaches of these limits are manifest in failed components that would otherwise last beyond the manufacturer's powertrain warranty and the life cycle of the vehicle.
The less intuitive scenario, where aftermarket devices decrease the engine's HP below design intent, can also generate powertrain performance issues. For example, powertrain systems using an automatic transmission with torque-based algorithms for selecting oil pressure profiles to manage torque and speed exchanges between oncoming (ONC) and off-going (OFG) clutch elements during up-shift, down-shift and engagement events will erroneously select high oil pressures for the ONC and OFG elements resulting in shift quality degradation. In addition to adding devices to a vehicle powertrain, modifying performance parameters by, for example, retuning an engine can also over time degrade powertrain performance and reduce component lifespan.
The addition of aftermarket devices and/or retuning or recalibrating powertrain components not only has a potentially deleterious effect on the powertrain, but can also result in false warranty claims being processed by vehicle manufacturers. Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for controlling a powertrain to account for aftermarket devices and/or modification of engine tuning parameters.